George Block currently serves as Chairman of the Board for both San Antonio Sports and Voices for Children – San Antonio. Prior to his retirement, he was an educator and coach in San Antonio for 36 years, and both COO and CEO of Haven for Hope of Bexar County, our community’s new transformational homeless center, from 2009-2012.

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Charlie’s Right

My inbox has been full the last couple of days. Either a liberal special interest group is telling me to contact Congressman Charlie Gonzalez to tell him to support the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Bill, or a conservative group wants me to urge him to oppose it. From what I can tell, Congressman Gonzalez is doing neither. He is trying to get it right.

The bill as it stands would be a nightmare for Texas. I think this is where representative democracy may get it right. Congressman Gonzalez is a pretty solid liberal Democrat, but he is also a pretty solid conservative Texan.

He realizes that Texas leads the nation in wind energy – and coal use. He knows we are near the top in natural gas and oil…and solar power. And he sees that our future is nuclear. That may be the critical issue.

Nuclear energy answers the three critical questions of the next 50 years: fuel, power and water.

Air quality, balance of trade and oil imports all become manageable when we move to battery powered cars. When fossil fuels are used primarily for inter-city transit and most intra-city transit is battery powered, North American oil will be able to meet our demands. The electrical grid, however, will not. We will need additional electricity as fuel.

The cleanest and most reliable source of commercial power is nuclear. If we are serious about cleaning the air AND expanding our economy; clean, reliable power is essential.

Water is the new oil. If we don’t get ahead of this issue wars will be fought over it – perhaps civil wars.

Texans brag about the “Third Coast” and revel in the beaches of Port Aransas and South Padre Island, but what we are overlooking is the incredible opportunity we have for desalinization. In San Antonio, our opportunity is even greater.

The deep waters of the Edwards aquifer are brackish and a perfect opportunity for desalinization, as are the hundreds of miles of salt water coastline. What stands between San Antonio and massive desalinization? Power.

It (currently) takes a LOT of power to commercially desalinate water. The electro-chemical process takes a lot of power and pumping water from there to here takes a lot of power, but once a nuclear plant is built, its power is essentially free.

Charlie Gonzalez is facing a lot of pressure these days. The political left is pressuring him to conform. The commercial right is pressuring him to protect. Our congressman is is slowing down and trying to get it right. Maybe we should thank him.